Point Made

If it were possible to define heroism in sports, you have to give a nod to sports that are played as individuals. You are on center court, the final hole or the last lap. The goal and the outcome are in your hands. You are pursued or maybe even behind other competitors who want to win as badly as you do. All eyes are on you. Television sets around the world bring your effort to millions more onlookers. There is no Hail Mary in your play book unless you can throw and catch the ball yourself. It’s just suck it up and put it out there for better or worse. Last weekend, at the most prestigious Open Championship, a young American Golfer showed what courage, grit, and determination can yield. After spraying a tee shot over the crowd and into the utility area of the course, Jordan Spieth hit an acceptable shot to get back in play. He followed that with an excellent approach and nasty little putt. And for his efforts, he surrendered the lead for the first time in the tournament. Improba...

I once remarked to friend of mine that I often wondered how I got through those years of thoughtless drinking and yet never got a DWI. He, another alcoholic in remission, told me that he often wondered himself. And then to capitalize our good fortune, we told tales where, if there was justice in the world, we would have been charged and spent at least a night in jail. I know that for at least fifty per cent of my drinking life, (I quit drinking for at least the fourth time when I was forty, I've been sober since.) I was fairly safe because I was white, male and wore a suit and tie. Thanks to Mothers Against Drunk Driving MADD, and other organizations things changed. A tightening and an insistence on enforcement of the laws is the norm in many communties. We read of men, and it is usually men, who receive multiple DWI's and still drive. It's a great news story, but a rare event. Alcoholism is a terrible disease. Because for so many years, we looked on alcohol abuse as a ...

It's cool in the upstairs bedroom. A cool front has crept in over night and with the windows open it's almost cold. but that is not what wakes me up. I have mild but persistent pain in the lower left quadrant of my stomach. I've had this before. It's gas or maybe early signs of some problems in my bowel, either constipation or diarrhea. Normally the pain will abate and I can continue to function. I can't sleep an I don't want to wake up Maria, so I get up, make my coffee and start my day. As I sit reading the columns from Urban Milwaukee, The Guardian, Bloomberg, and Slate, I m getting more pain and concern. I gut it out until 8:30 and then ask Maria to take me to the ER at Thedacare. I'm laying on the exam table in room 10, gowned and in far more pain then my previous episodes exhibited. Nurse Wendy is going over some basic questions given my symptoms. Doctor McCloy comes in and does in indepth exam and postulates it's probably diverticulitis. The...

Moving is generally a stressful situation, unless, you have enough money to have people do your packing and moving. It’s also exhausting. Under the circumstances we faced  (See A Tree Falls in Fox Crossing, YouTube), moving had to be done quickly. It was also a time of a lot of activity at Maria’s job. You would think since is the fourth move we’ve made in four years, we would have winnowed out most of the crap from our moving van. But no, the stuff breeds in those unopened boxes and creeps out at night to feed on the forgotten things around it. all of this goes unseen until it’s time to pack.  The trip to Lowe’s for boxes, tape, stretch wrap, wrapping paper, and bubble wrap takes but a few minutes. It’s not that we haven’t done this before. We even know where to start.  Books . We have cut the inventory down, but we will never be without some of our books. Maria and I both have our favorite fiction. Then there are her decorating and gardens texts. Books are p...

Very possibly this week was, a was my good friend John Ray once said, a week full of white man's problems. In other words, no one I knew died in a tower fire in London, perished in the Mediterranean trying to flee from the chaos of the middle east or did we suffer personal injury. But stress is relative and reaction to stress can have serious consequences. We gave up trying to find a home to purchase. The market here, for houses in our desired price range, is volatile. We are trying to get financing and it's been difficult. We made one offer on a home and it was turned down. Other homes we liked were gone before we could act. Maria wisely called a time out. Seasonal allergies have laid my wife low. I do not share this malady and therefore can't really do more than making her the occasional soothing cup of tea. It's kind of like having the child with this type of thing. I love her and I hate to see her in pain and not be able to sooth her. The Mother Nature brought...

As we look forward to celebrating the Pride we have in our Gay population, (Yeah, I couldn't resist the pun.) I'm pleased to report that diversity in the mix of our residents here in the Fox River Valley continues to surprise me. Example: As my wife and I waited for friends, in the lobby of the Marcus Hollywood Theater on the west side of Appleton, I witnessed three AfricanAmericann ladies buying snacks. Behind them was a Latino couple. At the end of the line, behind was an Asian fellow with three kids. We represented the WASP's. This is in a community that when I first visited in the nineteen sixties, if a black man walked down the street, he more than likely played football for Green Bay. After that, there was a rather pronounced immigration of Hmong and quieter arrival of Latino's. For a while, the worst keep secret was that the new Italian restaurant was actually owned by Mexican's. Since returning to the Valley, I've grown use...

I once attended a creative writing workshop. Marshall Cook a man who taught me more about writing than anyone. Asked the group who in the room thought they were writers? A couple of very tentative hands went up. When he asked who had sold their writing to anyone. I believe one hand went up. He asked if we thought that selling our work meant that we were real writers? Most of us, including me, raised our hands. He then said, "If you write, you are a writer. The test is why you write. Do you write because you have to or because you want to.?" Oddly, the real definitive answer is, if you write because you have to write. Wanting to write is like hoping you win the lottery. Having to write is buying the ticket. Agreed, having to write is more work than buying a lottery ticket, but the dream is as big and the odds of published success is comperable. Hence Halvin and Cobbs. I, like many others, that subject ourselves to scribble out a couple of hundred words a week to satis...